For some reason, I feel more urgency to garden this year than I have in the past. I was blaming the lingering cold and snow – nothing like being unable to start working to make you feel like you need to work! I mean, it’s almost April. I am so. Far. Behind.

Then I checked my garden calendar from the past two years. Each of them, 2014 and 2013, had snows after March 21st. And in neither year did I even plant the first peas before the first weekend of April. So. This frantic feeling like I’m falling behind has it’s basis in… what? Possibly the shiny new detailed WVU Extension Service 2015 Garden Calendar I picked up for free at a local shop. (Local-ish, I’m near zone C in their map.)

The Calendar says right that I should be seeding things in cold frames or low tunnels, planting onion sets, seeding peas and radishes, and well, everything besides what I am actually doing: blogging about everything I haven’t started doing.

The fact that I did not “put away” my garden last fall is contributing to the panic because I am even farther “behind” considering all the clean up work I had to do. On the other hand, when I finally inspected the garden, I realized all was not lost!

Two caraflex cabbages survived the crazy winter in the cold frame. (The two left most plants in the photo – I still haven’t figured out what the rest of that is.)

Life lurking in the cold frame

I had a “low tunnel” – my first attempt at one – covered in plastic for most of the winter, though a bad storm in February shredded the plastic and exposed all the plant life. Somehow, parsnips (top) and leeks (bottom) survived the ongoing cold. And yes, in the upper left, those are two carrots I pulled from the bed intact. No, I didn’t try to eat them!

Leeks and parsnips oh my!

This is all that remains of my strawberries. This is what happens when you don’t cover them with straw and deer netting (the netting you see there was added last week). The cold and the marauding deer population took their toll!

All that remains of my strawberries.

I have started some seeds indoors. Following the WVU Calendar. Apparently I started these tomatoes TOO soon though. I’ve got at least a month and a half before these guys can be planted in the garden, and they are already out of room under my grow lights.

Seriously. Ewww. The last thing we want around baby plants is this much mold.

Now, emptied K-cups make a great holder for the hydrated peat pellets – they even have a built in hole, whereas I had to (carefully) punch a hole in the bottom of the water cups. But they were very small and all my baby plants quickly out grew them, making them almost more hassle than it was worth.

Maybe some year I’ll break down and buy some “professional” seed starting equipment… Naaaah, probably not.

Lo, about a month ago, I thought to myself: I am going to start my garden early, and really maximize my yield this year. …I should buy some Agribon floating row covers for when this wacky weather gets hot, the seedlings start popping, and then the temp drops below freezing. Yeah, that was today. I still don’t have the Agribon. But I do have the best dressed garden in the neighborhood. Behold, my improvised row covers!

When in doubt, make it up!

Best. Dressed. Garden. EVER.

Do flannel-lined plastic table covers really pass for garden protection? Stay tuned for the next installment!

P.S….if you’re standing in the rain, taking photo after photo to get the right shot, you might have a blogging problem!